Friday, March 21, 2014

Putin’s
Olympic Controversy

Cover
story of the March issue of Decision magazine, published
by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

Franklin Graham

According to a
recent article from Politico,
Americans hold the lowest view of Russians and their president that they’ve had
in more than two decades. Citing a Gallup Poll survey, Politico said that 60 percent of Americans hold an unfavorable view
of Russia and 63 percent have a negative opinion of President Vladimir Putin.

American
distaste for Putin and his policies, however, hasn’t diminished his global
standing. Last October, Forbes
magazine declared Putin to be the most powerful man in the world. Anyone who
watched the recent Winter Olympics from Sochi, Russia, could see why. More than
any of the gold medal winners, Putin was the commanding presence.

The Olympics
were a $51 billion spectacle, but the days leading up to the Games were
overshadowed by a controversial issue—a
law Putin signed in 2013 to protect minors (children) in Russia from
homosexuals promoting their lifestyle. Specifically, the law bans the
“propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations to minors.”

American media
and liberal activists were outraged that the Olympics would be allowed in such
an “intolerant” culture. Even though Putin said that gays and lesbians would be
allowed at the Olympics, the fact that
he took a stand—simply to protect children—ignited a worldwide cultural
firestorm. He further explained the law by saying, “We have a ban on the
propaganda of homosexuality and pedophilia.”

In some ways,
the Winter Olympics has become like the Cold War.

Lest we forget,
it has not yet been 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of
the Soviet Union and the retreat of godless communism. Just a few generations
ago, America held the high moral ground.

How the times
have changed!

America’s response to Putin’s law was sadly
predictable. President Obama intentionally included homosexuals in his official
U.S. delegation to Sochi. Then his attorney general stole headlines from the
opening weekend with an announcement to the Human Rights Campaign (a major
gay-rights group): As far as the federal government is concerned, there is no
longer any difference between traditional and same-sex marriage—even in the 33
states that outlaw those marriages.

It’s obvious that President Obama and his
administration are pushing the gay-lesbian agenda in America today and have
sold themselves completely to that which is contrary to God’s teaching.

So how are
Americans to understand Putin, who has come to dominate the world stage even
more than our own president? Is Putin right on this issue?

Putin’s father
has been described as a militant atheist, his mother was a devout Orthodox, and
his grandfather was a personal cook for the Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin.

Putin himself
was an officer in the Soviet Union’s notorious KGB security agency from 1976 to
1991. In fact, he was in charge of monitoring foreigners in Leningrad (now St.
Petersburg) when my father preached there in 1984. If he was eavesdropping on
our meeting, which I hope he was, he heard the Gospel!

When the USSR
collapsed in 1991, Putin moved into politics, and in 2000 he replaced Boris
Yeltsin as president of Russia. Term limits forced him to step aside in 2008,
but he was re-elected in 2012 for a six-year term.

I have never
heard Putin quote the Bible, but during his 2012 election campaign, he met with
church leaders in Moscow and vowed to protect persecuted Christians around the
world. That is one justification for his support of the Assad regime in Syria.

Syria, for all its problems, at least has a
constitution that guarantees equal protection of citizens. Around the world, we
have seen that this is essential where Christians are a minority and are not
protected. The radicals in Syria want an Islamic constitution based on sharia
law.

Christians have lived in Syria since the time of
Christ. The Apostle Paul was on the road to Damascus when he met Christ.
Christians in Syria know that if the radicals overthrow Assad, there will be
widespread persecution and wholesale slaughter of Christians.

To be clear, I
am not endorsing President Putin. To survive in the KGB and rise to power in
Russia, you have to be tough. His enemies say he is ruthless. To some, he is a
modern version of a czar. His personal life has its own controversies.

Isn’t it sad, though, that America’s own morality has
fallen so far that on this issue—protecting children from any homosexual agenda
or propaganda—Russia’s standard is higher than our own?

Vladimir Putin

In my opinion,
Putin is right on these issues. Obviously, he may be wrong about many things,
but he has taken a stand to protect his nation’s children from the damaging
effects of any gay and lesbian agenda.

Our president
and his attorney general have turned their backs on God and His standards, and
many in the Congress are following the administration’s lead. This is shameful.

The world used
to look to America for moral leadership. But those days are long gone.

Today, we’ve
abdicated our moral leadership. We defeated communism, only to relax and see
secularism and progressives take over our country. Secularism is as godless as
communism. Secularists and progressives have taken over our schools, media, and
local and federal government. And it has all happened in the twinkling of an
eye.